COMMENCEMENT AT TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY, MISS.
Commencement at Tougaloo University this year was characterized by an unusual quietness and the absence of the great crowds which usually attend. For many weeks smallpox had been prevalent in the regions about, so much so, that it was necessary to practically quarantine the school against incomers. Since February, nearly all pupils had been refused in the boarding department, and from the middle of March the day pupils had been excluded almost wholly. It is worthy of note, however, that notwithstanding this, the enrollment of the year surpassed, by one hundred and more, that of the year previous. It did not seem wise to issue any general invitation to the Commencement Exercises, and so the public stayed away. A few invited guests came from Jackson, among them Governor Longino, Secretary of State Power, ex-Congressman Hooker, and some of the pastors of the city. These gentlemen made brief addresses, heartily commending the school's work and that for which it stands. The annual address on "Wealth," by Dr. Cornelius H. Patton, of St. Louis, made a very deep impression.
Four students were graduated from the academy and normal course. Two of them, and possibly more, will take college work. Next year Tougaloo will, for the first time, have a full college course. Excellent work has been done in that department during the past year. It is interesting to note that one of the graduates represents the second generation at Tougaloo, her mother having been a student in the early days of the school. There are many such second generation students in the lower grades, and they distinctly show the effects of the influences to which their parents were subjected. All the graduates were country-bred.
Those visitors to the school who had been familiar with it in the past years were specially interested in the outward changes visible. The new Beard Hall, commodious and pleasant, well furnished and convenient, and the new Refectory, with its dining-room capable of seating three hundred students; the Emergency Building, now transformed into a spacious building for the manual training in wood and industrial drawing; the new building for iron and steel forging and masonry; the old shop metamorphosed into a most satisfactory laundry, all were commented on as great additions to the material side of Tougaloo's life. In passing from building to building, attention was paid to the industrial features of the work. The exhibits of iron and steel tools made by the students, among them a machine for cutting iron, of great strength and excellent workmanship; of chairs, desks, tables, tabourets, etc.; of needlework from the beginning steps to completed garments; of cookery and of millinery, were deemed very satisfactory. Much of the work cannot be surpassed anywhere. Leading Mississippians are proud of Tougaloo and its work, and esteem it the best school of its class.
Mention was more than once made of the fact that the new president of Alcorn College, the state institution for colored young men, which is now doing better work than for some years, and his accomplished wife, are graduates of Tougaloo. The teacher of iron and steel work there had his training in the Tougaloo shops.